 The programme will seek to improve decision-making on sustainable soil management and sustainable land management by strengthening technical capacities and coordination mechanisms, as well as updating national soils information. Under this initiative, soil labs in the region will become better equipped to adapt and respond more efficiently to soil challenges. Head of the Environmental Sustainability Division of the OECS, Chamberlain Emmanuel, says the project will ensure policymakers operate from data that is current and accurate through the development of a GIS soils map in St Lucia. The Caribbean, particularly our small OECS member states, has been classified as one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impacts of environmental degradation. Confronted with changes in rainfall patterns, temperature, sea level, droughts, storms and flooding, we must remain firmly in support of policies and initiatives towards the achievement of land degradation neutrality, especially through the promotion of sustainable land management approaches, which is defined as the use of land resources including soil, water, animals, plants for the production of goods to meet changing human needs while simultaneously ensuring the long-term productive potential of these resources and the maintenance of their environmental functions. The phase one of the soil care project will focus on rolling out projects on the ground in three national implementation sites, including Schwizzle, Bwarden Jackmel and Sendefe. Executive Director of the Partnership Initiative for Sustainable Land Management, Calvin James, highlights the importance of this initiative to improving and ensuring the sustainability of St Lucia's land and water resources and reduced degradation. We are thankful to the support we have had from the communities throughout St Lucia as we developed the St Lucia segment of soil care phase one and we know it will be a success because it meets the direct needs of the people in their communities. And we also want to thank our ministerial, technical and political partners who ensured that we were able to do the work that was necessary underground to bring us to this point. As the world continues to work together to accomplish the Sustainable Development Code 13 to combat climate change and its impacts, the Ministry of Agriculture remains committed to efforts to reverse land degradation. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, I am Anisia Antoine reporting.